Automated banking machines are known in the prior art. A common type of automated banking machine is an automated teller machine (ATM). ATMs may be used by individuals to receive cash from their accounts, to pay bills, to transfer cash between accounts, and to make deposits. Certain ATMs also enable customers to deposit checks, money orders, travelers checks, or other instruments. Such ATMs sometimes have the capability of creating an electronic image of a deposited instrument.
ATMs may also provide various types of sheets to customers. Such sheets include currency bills that customers withdraw from the machine. Customers may also receive sheet materials such as money orders, bank checks, scrip, stamps, or other sheet materials stored in or produced by the machine. Customers may also receive from an ATM a printed sheet which is a receipt indicating the particulars of the transactions they have conducted at the machine. In addition customers may request and receive from some ATMs a more detailed statement of transactions conducted on their account.
ATMs currently in use often have several different locations on the machine where sheets are received from or delivered to a customer. For example, most machines include one area for delivering cash to a customer and another area for receiving deposits. More than one deposit receiving area may also be provided for different types of deposits. For example, an ATM may have one opening for receiving envelope deposits, and a separate opening for receiving negotiable instruments, such as checks. ATMs may also have a particular area for delivering receipts to the customer. If the machine has the capability of printing a complete account statement on larger paper an additional area may be provided where statement sheets are delivered.
Having different areas on the customer interface of an ATM to receive and provide different types of sheets is required because each type of sheet is processed by a different mechanism within the machine. Each of these mechanisms has its own separate access to the customer. This makes machines with different features substantially different from other machines and adds complexity to their operation. Providing several different passageways and transports for receiving and providing sheet materials to customers also adds complexity and cost to a machine.
While the drawbacks associated with multiple sheet delivery and receiving openings is easily appreciated with regard to ATMs, other automated banking machines have similar drawbacks. For example the machines used by bank tellers to count currency received from customers are generally totally different machines than those used to dispense currency that is to be provided by the teller to a customer. Separate machines are also provided for receiving and imaging checks and other types of negotiable instruments and documents of value. Often a separate terminal is provided to print a record of a transaction for a customer. The drawbacks associated with having different machine interfaces to receive and deliver documents is common to automated banking machines other than ATMs. Thus there exists a need for an automated banking machine that has a simpler user interface, which is capable of receiving as well as providing various types of sheets through a single opening, and which may be capable of carrying out a variety of transactions.